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For as long as Mal could remember, attracting ghost Pokémon always been one of her many talents. Unfortunately for Mal, it's been the bane of her entire existence since all its done was instill a strong fear of ghost Pokémon into her. The Kalosian's very first interaction with ghost Pokémon was her mother's pride and joy, Gengar. Maleficent and her Gengar were known all throughout the Kalos region because at her prime, Maleficent won the Kalos league at least three or four times. Her mother is practically considered a living legend. The only reason she finally settled down was to "raise" Mal.
Well most would use the word, raise, lightly since Maleficent often left Mal home alone to be taken care of by Gengar and the staff she hired while she was away on business trips. Now Gengar means well, honestly, she does because she genuinely loves Mal. Maybe a little too much. It seems most, if not all, Gengars naturally like to be pranksters and Mal was just the perfect target for such a Pokémon. When Mal was still an infant, Gengar would purposely go through all the walls and creep into Mal's nursery to play hide and seek with Mal, which really meant she'd hide Maleficent's baby somewhere in their large estate and have Maleficent's sometimes incompetent staff find Mal. Those games of hide and seek always resulted in Mal bursting into tears and the staff finally finding her in some cupboard or basement.
Those pranks only got worse as Mal got older. There were times little Mal would wake up and find herself on the roof of her house or have ghost pokémon haunting her in her dreams; Gengar often invited her fellow ghost pokémon to play with little Mal. Sometimes Gengar would even levitate Mal just for the fun of it as the young girl screamed to get down. Maleficent's servants always tried to save their young mistress, but Gengar was not an easy opponent.
To this day, Mal sleeps with a night light even though she's embarrassed to admit it. After all, she has an image to uphold as her merciless mother's daughter and fearing the dark just doesn't fit that image. The biggest contributor to her fear of the dark was the time Mal was six and Gengar left her outside in a dark forest. Mal still vividly remembers that day like it was yesterday.
It was another regular day for Mal in her mother's abnormally large estate. Maleficent was away on her business trip as usual and Gengar chased Mal around the house in a one-sided game of tag. The crying child ran as far as her little legs could take her in her mother's large estate until she realized she was alone and lost. Mal's little green eyes looked around before tears started building up. She sat on a rock and started crying. No one could hear her sobs, well no one was around the forest to hear her sobbing. The Pokémon, however, were all warily watching the crying child, but none got too close to her. Eventually Mal ceased her crying as she felt a strong warmth next to her little legs. She glanced down from the rock she was sitting on and saw a Charmander staring at her with curiosity and concern.
"Char!" the Pokémon called and Mal wiped away her tears.
"Are you lost too?" the young 6-year girl asked the Pokémon and hiccupped from her crying earlier.
"Char!" Charmander shook its little head and hugged Mal's legs.
"Do you want to be my friend?"
"Char!!" Charmander smiled and nodded.
"I'm Mal" greeted Mal with a grin.
"Char-Charmander!"
"Let’s be friends" the little girl tells the fire Pokémon, which happily agreed and hugged Mal to keep her warm. The tail from the pokémon’s flame provided light in what otherwise would have been pitch darkness. With the help of Charmander, Mal found her way out of the forest and back into her estate. The servants ran towards the little girl and checked for any wounds on the child. Even Gengar looked rather guilty for having scared Mal to the point that she was lost for hours.
"Lady Mal! Are you alright?!" One of butlers asked Mal, who was holding Charmander in her arms. Luckily Mal had been unscathed or else the staff would have to face the wrath of Maleficent for their incompetence.
"I'm okay. I was lost, but Charmander helped me!"
"Char!" the Pokémon grinned and proudly saluted to the humans.
The staff watched as Mal walked into her estate with her new friend. Mal brings the new Pokémon to her room and gently places Charmander on her bed and the fire pokémon smiles as Mal lays next to it. Mal snuggles closer to her new friend and yawns, tired from spending hours outside. Charmander's warm body and light offered comfort for the child.
Since that day, Mal and Charmander have been inseparable. Even after Charmander fully evolved to Charizard, it would still snuggle close to Mal to offer her the same warmth, comfort and love that they’ve had since Mal was 6. One of Charizard and Mal’s favorite past times is going flying because they both enjoy the freedom that they get in the air. When they’re in the air, it’s one of the few chances that they get some proper trainer-pokémon bonding. Regardless of how many new Pokémon Mal catches, her Charizard will always have a special place in her heart.
Unfortunately, after Mal befriended her new pokémon, Charmander also became a new plaything for Gengar. The two would often find themselves caught in Gengar’s never ending pranks, which is why Charizard is still gravely terrified of Gengar to this day. The trainer and pokémon used to wake up in the middle of the night with all the furniture in Mal’s room floating and Gengar slowly coming in and out of the walls with its ghastly grin.
As Mal got older, she found it hard to make friends because of her short temper and odd tendencies to shout at inanimate objects (which were really ghost pokemon pranking her for the fun of it, but they always disappeared before anyone else could spot them). It seemed everyone avoided Mal like a plague.
Everyone except a girl named Uma.
Mal met Uma when they were 8 years old. Mal was sitting at the beach with her Charmander, the two of them watching the waves crash onto the shores and the salt water was barely touching her toes each time when she noticed the presence of someone coming towards her. She turned to her left and saw a young girl around her age with beautiful dark skin and the girl was wearing all turquoise from head to toe. The stranger had a pirate’s hat and a snarky grin on her face. Mal was always ready for a fist fight since she was no stranger to snide comments from her classmates. The fire pokémon on her side was also ready to protect his trainer by any means necessary.
“Can I help you?” Mal asked while getting up from her spot on the sand and then staring at her new acquaintance with her arms crossed.
“The name’s Uma. And I wanna battle with you.” Uma smirked.
“I’m Mal.” The young girl replied and her Charmander proudly stood by his trainer while Uma and her Squirtle got ready for battle. Before they began their battle, Mal took a closer look at the other girl and realized she was in another class at her school.
"Hey, I know you. You're the girl with a mom who dresses up as Tentacruel and screams at people in her restaurant." Mal states and Uma’s smirk fell before turning into a frown. The water type trainer turned away in an attempt to hide her frustration.
"So, what?! Are you going to make fun of me like everyone else does?! I could beat you up, you know!" Uma screams and points to Mal.
"Woah Woah Woah! Hey, it’s cool. Don't worry, I'm the one everyone calls the weirdo who screams at furniture in our school. I can't judge." exclaims Mal as she shrugs. Uma relaxes hearing Mal’s words before sighing.
"People suck don't they?" Uma asks as a rhetorical question and Mal chuckles.
"You got that right. So, you ready to battle, Uma?"
"Ready!"
“Charmander use flamethrower!” orders Mal.
“Dodge it Squirtle! Counter it with water gun!” Uma shouts.
After that day, Mal and Uma became so close that they were practically inseparable both in school and out of school and no one ever bothered them. However, they were off to a rather rough start because neither Mal nor Uma were aware that if a Charmander’s flame is put out, its life will be in danger. Uma and her Squirtle had accidentally put out Charmander’s flame during their first battle back at the beach. Mal and Uma quickly rushed Charmander to a nearby Pokémon center.
Uma continuously apologized to Mal while they were waiting at the Pokémon center, and although Mal was terrified and distraught, she did not blame Uma. As Charmander’s trainer, she should have been aware of Charmander’s physiology. After about half an hour of waiting, and Uma still apologizing to her newfound friend, the nurse brought out Charmander. The Pokémon ran to see its trainer and Mal happily hugged her Charmander, which was just as eager to see his trainer. Uma apologized yet again, but Mal assured her that it was okay and invited Uma and her Squirtle to her home to hang out. The two became fast friends, to the point that their families would even go on vacations together. Uma was glad to have someone who she could share her embarrassment with whenever she sees her mother being extra in public with her Tentacruel or Octilerry outfits.
“Uma! How does momma look?” Ursula would barge into her daughter’s room and Mal would always be shocked by these terrible outfits.
“Uh… a mess?” Uma would reply each time.
Uma becoming Mal’s best friend also meant Gengar thought she had a new target to mess with.
On the first night Uma slept over, Mal and Uma were in Mal's room and sharing a bed while watching television. Squirtle and Charmander were sleeping next to each other while their trainers were watching the latest performance from pokémon performers. Mal was about to go to sleep when suddenly all the lights turned off in her room and her bed started floating with her and Uma on it. Charmander and Squirtle watched in fear while Mal was screaming, but Uma was relatively calm.
“Gengar! It’s not funny!” Mal angrily shouted when Gengar suddenly appeared behind her and licked Mal and Uma with her tongue.
“Gengar! Stop!”
Uma watched the exchange between Mal and Maleficent’s Pokémon and slowly started laughing.
“Uma! You find this funny?!”
“Mal c’mon it’s not even that scary. This is nothing compared to my mom. Hello Genger, nice to meet you.” Uma says and both Gengar and Mal stared at Uma in shock. Gengar was so used to scaring everyone that the thought of someone, especially a little girl, not being afraid of her just seemed impossible. On the other hand, Mal was grateful that Uma wasn’t upset over Gengar’s prank since Uma was her first real friend, but she thought Uma was a kindred spirit. Guess not.
Gengar continued to try to scare Uma for the rest of the week, even the point of making terrifying illusions filled with gore and blood, but nothing seemed to faze Uma and eventually the ghost pokémon just gave up. In a strange turn of events, Uma and Gengar started playing pranks on Mal and Charmander together, much to Mal’s dismay.
However, Uma’s lack of fear did not mean she was made of steel. When Mal and Uma were 11, they were exploring a forest until Mal’s infamous talent for attracting ghost pokemon came full force. The two preteens were searching for berries and pokémon when Mal’s terrible sense of direction led them to the heart of the forest in the dark. Mal’s Charmeleon, Noibat and Espeon and Uma’s Wartortle, Larvitar, and Umbreon were all out of their poke balls to protect their trainers.
“Mal, I told you we shouldn’t have taken that turn earlier” complained Uma.
“Do you ever shut up?!” Mal yells.
The two of them tried to call their mothers but could not find any signal in the forest. The afternoon yawned into the evening and now the duo and their pokémon found themselves surrounded by pure darkness.
They continued walking but stopped in their tracks as they hear an eerie wailing. If it was possible, all the color in Mal’s face was completely drained while Charmeleon and Noibat were shaking in fear. Uma and her pokémon prepared for battle because they could tell wild pokémon were coming.
The trees around them appeared to be moving and the temperatures fell to the point that the duo could see their breaths.
“W-What’s g-going on?” Mal stutters from both fear and cold.
“I d-dunno” Uma stutters too.
Suddenly the tree behind them grabs Mal and the girl shrieks. Uma watches in horror seeing the tree with a face holding Mal tightly with its branches.
“What the hell is that?!” Uma grabs her pokedex and it reveals that it’s a Trevenant.
“It’s ghost and grass! Charmeleon! Can you use flamethrower?!” Uma asks Mal’s pokémon, which had fainted from shock.
“Crap. Umbreon! Use bite!” ordered Uma and her Pokémon quickly reacted and bit the ghost pokémon. The ghost and grass Pokémon screams at the super effective attack and releases Mal, who fell with a thud.
“Thanks Uma!” Mal groans as she gets up and dusts herself.
“No problem! Umbreon! Use dark pulse!”
The pure dark Pokémon does as her trainer orders and attacks the wild Trevenant, successfully knocking it unconscious. They all breathe to relax their nerves, and Charmeleon regained his consciousness. Their moment of peace was short-lived because soon they found themselves surrounded by and army of Gourgeists, Pumpkaboos, Trevenants, Phantumps, Banettes and Mal’s worst fear, Gengars and their previous evolutions.
“Y’know when you said you attracted ghost pokémon, I thought you were kidding Mal.” Uma tried to lighten up the mood.
“I wish! Run!”
The two of them ran for their lives that night. It would later be known as the first of many times in which Mal gets herself and Uma chased by ghost pokémon.
.
When Mal and Uma were old enough to embark on their journeys alone, they decided to follow their dreams of winning Pokémon leagues. After a disappointing turn of events in the Kalos league, and Mal’s mother giving her daughter her unwarranted two cents, Mal decided she needed a change of pace in another region. The blonde has always found herself in her mom’s shadow and Maleficent always had something to complain about; from the way Mal choose to befriend her pokémon instead of subduing them in battle, to Mal’s refusal to push her pokémon too far. Mal was just never a good enough trainer in Maleficent’s eyes and her lost in the Kalos league, albeit making it to the final 4 on her first try, just seemed to confirm Maleficent’s thoughts about her daughter.
Mal was determined to prove her mother wrong and Uma was more than happy to join her best friend in the Sinnoh region.
Their first day in the Sinnoh region was rather eventful to say the least. They had found themselves lost in a forest and saved an injured eevee. And when they found a city to return the eevee, they were greeted by a beautiful pokémon coordinator by the name of Evie and Mal was quickly smitten by the girl. With the help of her caring best friend, Mal found herself on a date with Evie at a restaurant that the latter had picked.
“So…Mal” Evie starts a conversation while Mal nervously takes a sip of her drink. The latter may be rather confident when it comes to Pokémon battling, but dating was a whole different thing.
“Uhm… yes?” Mal replied and almost choked on her drink.
“Tell me about yourself.” Evie smiled and once again Mal was questioning what she did in her past life to be lucky enough to go on a date with such a pretty girl.
Thank you Arceus thought Mal to herself.
“Like what?”
“Anything really. You saved my eevee so I’m thankful and all and you’re also really cute, but I wanna know more about you." Evie says and sends Mal a quick wink.
“Well… I’m 16. I’m from Kalos. I have wanted to be a trainer for as long as I could remember because of my mom. She’s a really awesome pokémon master and has won the Kalos league many times. I aspire to be like her and win just as many leagues. I remember watching her on television all the time when I was young and seeing how she would defeat her opponents in the league-“
Evie placed a finger on Mal’s lips to cut her off.
“Nope. I wanna learn about you, not your mother. She sounds like a great trainer. But you are more than her daughter whether you believe it or not. Trust me, I know. My mother is a pretty famous Pokémon coordinator and every so often people ask me questions about her instead of me even when she’s no longer an active coordinator. I know how it feels to be in someone’s shadow, but I am more than my mother’s daughter and you are too.”
Evie smiles at Mal’s look of shock and leans forward to softly kiss the shorter girl’s cheek.
“Have some faith in yourself. You will accomplish things at your own pace and in your own way.”
Mal leans back into her chair and lets everything Evie just said, and the kiss, sink in.
“You’re really too good to be going on a date with the likes of me” Mal chuckles.
Evie giggles and shakes her head, “we’re going to have to do something about your confidence if we’re going to continue seeing each other.”
“Huh?”
Evie shrugs, “Like I said, I find you really cute”
Mal was speechless yet again.
.
True to her word, Evie and Mal continued to see each other and the latter found herself falling even harder for Evie each time. They were on a couple of dates throughout some cities in Sinnoh, but Mal wanted a change of pace. She had prepared a picnic under the stars for her and Evie and tonight was the night she’d ask Evie to be her girlfriend. Everything was perfect, Mal had spent hours preparing the food and beverages for the date and they found a great spot in the forest. Unfortunately, Mal had not factored in her knack for attracting ghost pokémon. Even though she’s 16 now, ghost pokémon were still drawn to her like venomoths are drawn to light.
Which is how they found their picnic date interrupted by Drifblims, Drifloons, Misdreavus, Mismagius and Spiritombs.
“Oh, come on!” Mal shouts while she grabs Evie’s hand and the two start running, their food left behind on their forgotten picnic spot.
“What’s happening?” Evie asks.
“Just me and my bad luck as usual!” replies Mal and she runs even faster when she sees a Spirtomb hot on their trail.
“Does this always happen to you?” Evie laughs.
“Sadly!”
They continue to run until they spot a house and Mal holds the door for Evie so they could both go in.
“Well that was good exercise.” Evie joked and wiped some of her sweat.
“Very funny.” Mal pouts.
Mal and Evie were trying to catch their breath when they all the lights turned on in the room and suddenly objects began flying all over the place.
“Why does this always happen?!”
“Mal, it’s okay! It’s just ghost pokémon!”
“Yeah and they want our souls!”
“Relax, Mal. Everything is going to be alright.”
Mal almost believed Evie until she saw a washing machine fly her way and it almost crushed her.
“Rotom!” the ghost and electric pokémon laughed.
Mal felt a chill down her spine and she turned to her right to see a Spiritomb next to her smiling.
“Evie! In case I lose my soul to this Spiritomb! I just want you to know that I really like you and want you to be my girlfriend! Tell Uma I’ll see her in hell!” Mal confesses and faints afterwards. The ghost pokémon, seemingly satisfied after scaring Mal half to death, decided it was time to leave. Evie carries Mal back to their picnic and waits for her to regain consciousness before they returned to the city. Mal remained silent the whole time. Once they got back to their hotel, Evie explained what happened to Uma, who found the situation hilarious because she laughs as she makes her way to the bathroom.
“Fuck you, asshole” Mal mumbles and goes to her side of the room to sleep.
Evie joins Mal and hugs her from behind.
“Hey, it’s alright. You’re alright.”
“I just wanted it to be a good date for you, but I fucked up. Just like I fuck up with everything else.”
Evie places both her hands on Mal’s cheeks so they could look each other in the eye.
“I don’t think so. Sure, it wasn’t an ideal date, but it sure was memorable. Definitely the most unforgettable date that I’ve ever had. Also, I don’t think I gave you an answer earlier.”
“Answer to what?”
“I want you to know that I like you a lot too and I would love to be your girlfriend.” Evie says.
“You would?!”
“Yup. Now, can I kiss you?” Evie asks.
“Please do.”
Evie was right as usual, it certainly was a date to remember and that was a kiss to remember.
.
There were a lot of things Mal didn’t know what to expect to see in Sinnoh, and her mother was one of them. She and Uma were just one gym badge away from being eligible to join the Sinnoh league. To say she was shocked to answer the doorbell and find her mother standing in front of her would have been a huge understatement.
“M-Mom.”
“Hello darling. How are you?” Maleficent asks with her usual stare that Mal grew up cowering in fear to.
“What are you doing here?”
“What, a mother can’t just come and see her teenage daughter, who traveled to a whole another region by herself without adult supervision?” Maleficent faked hurt.
Evie and Uma watched from behind, the Sinnoh native gently placed her hand on her girlfriend’s back to help her relax.
Mal sighed.
“One, I came here with Uma. Two, I told you in my letters that I’m dating a native Sinnohian so you don’t gotta worry about anything and Three, you left me by myself all the time. What are you really doing here? Here to judge me as usual?” Mal asks.
Maleficent seemed genuinely hurt by Mal’s tone, but she quickly masked it with her usual stoicism.
“I came here to see how you’re doing and because somebody missed you.”
“Who?” Mal nervously asked.
A dark purple shadow crawled up from the ground and Mal froze in her spot.
“G-G-Gengar!”
If Mal was a Pokémon, the sight of Gengar alone was super effective and Mal fainted on site and landed on the floor with a hard thud that made Uma cringe. Gengar on the other hand seemed very satisfied to know that she still instilled fear in Mal.
“Mal!” Evie shouts in concern and shakes her unconscious girlfriend.
“Hey, Gengar” Uma greets the Pokémon, which sticks her tongue at Uma.
“Hello, Uma. Your mother told me she misses you.”
“…Hello Ma’am. And thank you, I’ll be sure to call her later.”
Evie seemed to be the only one who was genuinely concerned for Mal’s wellbeing. Although it was because Maleficent and Uma were used to Gengar scaring Mal to the point of fainting.
“This child is still scared of my adorable Gengar.” Maleficent sighs and shakes her head while Gengar cackles.
Evie carries Mal to the sofa and places her down on the sofa until she wakes up about 10 minutes later. The brunette was well aware of Mal’s fear of ghost Pokémon, especially after learning about Mal’s childhood with Gengar. That was also why Evie was not happy when Uma caught not only a Misdreavus, but also a Dusknoir. Uma and Evie still get into arguments because Uma’s ghost Pokémon just love to bother Mal when she least expects it and Uma allows it to happen for shits and giggles. But that’s a story for another time. Right now, Evie was worried about how this mother-daughter reunion was going to play out. From what Mal has told her, Maleficent wasn’t exactly mother of the year.
The Sinnohian helps Mal up on the couch and the blonde thanks Evie with a quick peck on the cheek before staring at her mother.
“Mom, please, why are you here?”
“Listen child, I really did come to see how you’re doing. I know I haven’t been the best mother.”
“Understatement” Mal muttered under her breath.
“I did worry about you coming here without an adult. But, I can see you are in good hands” Maleficent says and looks at Evie, who nervously looks down to avoid the stare from her girlfriend’s mother.
“I also know that you will be competing in the Sinnoh league. I will be a guest there for an exhibition battle with the current Sinnoh league champion. And I wanted to tell you that, I will be rooting for you. You and I may not have seen eye to eye in the past with how to raise Pokémon, but I see now that the way you have been training them is fine. I have spoken to many of the gym leaders in this region and asked about you and they all spoke very highly of you. I now know that your methods of training Pokémon are just as effective as mine. So, good luck in the league. You too Uma. I’m cheering you both on. Lastly, I was curious to meet the girlfriend of my daughter. It’s not every day you make friends, much less date. And I can see that she is just as magnificent as you say in your letters. It was a pleasure to meet you Evie, dear. I hope we will get to know each other more in the future” Maleficent says and she turns around to show herself the door.
“Thank you, mother.”
Maleficent doesn’t show her smile, but Mal knows that maybe it’s not too late to have a better relationship with her mother.
A few hours later after dinner, Mal and Evie were in their shared room and watching television.
“That was not how I envisioned meeting your mother for the first time” Evie joked.
“Yeah, same.”
“You feeling okay?” Evie asks while hugging Mal from behind.
“I’m good. It just feels weird hearing praises from my mother for once. All I’ve ever wanted growing up was to make her feel proud of me and acknowledge me as a Pokémon trainer. And now that she has, it feels weird. Like not a bad weird, a good weird. You know?”
Mal leaned into Evie’s embrace and smiled.
“I’m happy for you, I really am. I hope you two can talk it out more in the future. But like I said on our first date, you’re not just your mother’s daughter. I believe you will win the league and make a name for yourself.”
“You’re really the best” Mal tells Evie and turns around to kiss her girlfriend. They got pretty lost in their make out session until Uma interrupted them. Mal looked up and sighed.
“What?” Mal groaned.
Uma smirked and says, “I wanted to ask if you wanted dessert, but I guess not since you’ll be eating-”
“If you don’t get the fuck out of my room, so help me Arceus.”
“Get some sleep you two. Evie has a contest tomorrow and I don’t think her dress will be able to hide her hi-“
“GET OUT!!”